Wait which one?

The links to Firmino on our end was pure speculation, his signing made no sense for us and it was based on the fact that the press got wind that he was headed to an un named English club lol.

I think there was definitely interest in Clyne from our end, the press seemed to think it was a done deal at one sage but all that talk dropped right off by the end of the season/opening of the window so I think it's reasonable to assume we cooled our interest there, especially considering how cheap he went for in the end. Regardless though I think he's a top signing for you guys in a really weak area, well played.

Obviously results and trophies in the last 10 years haven't been like they were before but I still think that given a choice between Liverpool and Southampton, 9 out of 10 players would prefer to play for Liverpool.

Clyne. Agree, he is a fantastic signing for us. Given you guys haven't really used a traditional RB under LvG and you have Rafael, it's not an area where you need a player really anyway.

Need another sound CB definately !
Sakho - either surprise's me or scares the be jesus out of me, not sure this is good for the heart rate.
Maybe Lovren hits his straps ???????????????
Moreno ? well lets just say maybe 1st season blues - big games he played like a rabbit in front of on coming headlights !
I still feel he's not strong enough - he gets beaten quite easliy imo.
If Clyne can play LB I'll be much happier Flanno being back at RB but visa versa is fine whereas Moreno off the bench....
Red - you forgot about Ings ? or from the bench eh.
Offload Sterling, Borino.
Balo ? I just don't know :lol: put it this way, I see Sturridge as much as I admire his skill being soft, will get injured once again no doubt sooner or later :( but Ings will jump in here before Balo.
Having the mobility of Firmino/the Cout Balo may be able to play his 9role hanging around the box, heck he may just just score more this coming season :lol:

Hey, WTF knows how all these changes will end up being like.
Just can't wait for the season to get going.

-PB

:lol:

=d>

Clyne confirmed :)

Just sign all of Southampton already :lol:

-PB

Also heard Benteke will sign within the next day or 2. I would love to get Lacazette, but if Benteke can continue his run with us then it will be sweet.

Clyne came to win trophies apparently..........

Not wrong ! Saints must have some nice burly out for us the last off season or 2.
Lallana has been ok Lovren no to date, have hope 2nd season improves.
At least Clyne a good sound signing in one area we've really needed.
Still have Flanno on my mind though.

I highly doubt lacazette eventuates.
Benteke - 32m ? - reports say we have agreed on this ???????? yet TBC.
Typically lots of press banter on countless possible signings.

Augustinnson ? < this is not a bad move if so.
Gomez ???

So Benteke has a good last 10 games for Villa and now he's worth 32mil?

Wouldn't pay half that for him.

I agree mate - no doubt he finished strong - heck far better than what we had up front :lol:
32m Villa are wishing to hold onto him.
His return is 42 goals from 89 games.
Villa paid Genk 7m lbs back in 2012.

So Liverpool are basically overhauling most of their squad?

-PB

Id just like us to look solid in defense for a whole season. It has been many years since we could say that.

Coates off to Sunderland on a permanent transfer.

Good luck to him.

Yer saw that on Coates this morn - best of luck, watch him play a blinder v's us......

Glenn ALM - defense ! , mind you we have Mignolet (hopefully the off season does he well).........
Backline looking like

Clyne Skrtl Lovren or Sakho Moreno < Flanno ? young Gomez ?

Some goss
Liverpool want to sign Benteke but are unwilling to pay the £32.5million asking price and that stand-off remains.

Liverpool don’t want to pay more than £25million for the big frontman, who has two years remaining on his current contract.

Villa have no interest in selling Benteke and are highly unlikely to accept lower than the release clause.

Part of the reason is that Villa will have to pass on 15% of any fee over £7m to his former club Genk, who negotiated a sell-on clause when he left his homeland in 2012.

If the release clause is met, that would be £3.8m heading to the Belgian outfit.

“There’s a buy-out clause in his contract so it will be impossible for us to stop him if he wants to go,” Villa boss Tim Sherwood said back in May.

“Someone’s got to meet that buy-out clause and if they don’t it won’t be considered because we don’t want to lose him.”

Aymen Abdennour to their list of targets ?
Gonzalo Higuain ?
Mateo Kovacic ?
;)

Edited by M.L.: 2/7/2015 03:35:04 PM

32.5m is well over the odds for him.

We still need a striker, but think we'll see a few more people leave before that happens or wait till the Sterling money comes in (although that story has gone a bit cold of late).

Higuan will cost 40m or more so don't see us going there.

If Lacazette from Lyon is available for 21m as reported recently then we should be doing everything we can to convince him to come, although I'm not hopeful we'd actually land him.

If Lucas goes then we definitely need a bit extra in the middle (arguably do even if he stays), Can has shown promise playing central mid for Germany U21s still learning. Either Illara from Real Madrid or Kovacic would be a great signing, both can pretty much play anywhere in the middle.

Incredible to think that even though we've made 5 signings or so we still have 2 months left of transfer speculation to deal with.....

Inter finally seem to be getting their shit together and making some good signings, I can't see why they'd want to let Kovacic go tbh.

I think they need to sell due to their FFP sanctions. Whilst that doesn't mean they need to sell Kovacic, there has been a lot of talk about us being close to a deal.

I would like to see Tiago Ilori given a chance in the starting team given his big reviews during the u21/23 Euro's.

It's been a busy off season so far. There will be more to come - hopefully with a few deadwood departures as well as maybe one more signing.
The challenge is it means time to bed in the squad, and discover our strongest 11 which will be done with some tough early fixtures.

Anyone want to take bets on whether sterling will still be here come August? I've made my peace with him leaving.

Welcome mate, nice to see a new face.

No way Sterling will be here after the window closes. He might still be here in August but he'll go :P

I want him to go, don't need that attitude here, it's not good for anyone.

I agree, there are many questions about the XI. Sturridge will still be out so who will start up top. Ings? Or will he play Firmino up there with Lallana/Coutinho in behind.

I would say the only certain starters for our first game would be Coutinho, Firmino, Hendo, Skrtel, Clyne, Mignolet.
The other spots will be any of Ings, Markovic, Lallana, Milner, Can, Allen, Ibe, Lucas, for MF/ST and Moreno, Flanno, Wisdom, Sakho, Gomez, Lovren for the backs.

I think we'll sign a new LB before then.

On Benteke - I really don't want us to sign him. Of course if he comes I'll support him but he seems to be the reverse of what we need - we did so well when we had Studge/Suarez/Sterling/Coutinho all moving, changing positions etc... I don't want somebody who will just stand in the middle. With that said, our BIGGEST problem last year was never having enough men in the box so having him there will give us a target... just don't want to resort to hoofball.

I certainly don't want him for 32.5m.

We still need a CM (Kovacic or someone) and a striker and a LB. I wouldn't mind another CB as well but not a necessity.

Thanks mate it's great to be here. Nothing better than talking football!

I agree about benteke. Especially for the fee quoted. It would be a bit to grand, and wreaks a bit of Andy Carroll big man for 35m. Different players I know, but still some parallels.

I think Milner, Hendo, Can and Lucas with Joe Allen as 5th choice is a reasonably solid and deep central midfield. I'll be pretty disappointed if emre can doesn't play most of his time in midfield this season.

I also don't want sterling anymore. If we can sell him for more than we bought Firmino I'll be happy and consider it an upgrade! I think sterling as good as he is still has a long way to go and I'm not convinced he has the right attitude to become world class.

The main signing that disappointed me was bogdan. I was hoping for mat Ryan. I like the idea of his quality distribution combining with our quick counter attacking style.

Do you think balotelli will go? With a half decent strike partner he may still come good, but depends on the formation BR wants to play... I don't see him featuring as the lone striker. And not sure we are prepared to keep him if another club shows some interest... We may never know how her have gone alongside a fit sturridge.

Anybody here heading to the LFC tour match?

I saw them at the MCG and at anfield last year so didn't feel like making the trip to catch them this time.

The good thing this year is we have most of our business done early. At east everyone has a full pre-season together and we can work on our best 11 through hat time. Sturridge obviously still being out for a while so gives Ings a decent chance to establish himself.

From a Socceroos perspective, would much rather Ryan spend another season at Brugge than come and be our number 2. Mignolet was good the 2nd half of the season, if we can get a stable pairing in front of him I think he'll be right.

Davide Santon from Inter looks like he might be available. He wasn't too bad at Newcastle from memory. Might be a cheap option for some depth although not sure he's too much of an upgrade (if at all) over Moreno.

Don't see anyone wanting to take Balotelli, at least not for anything near what we paid for him. Wouldn't mind if he stays, he always looked better playing alongside another striker so could be useful if played in the right system.

I hope Balotelli, Borini, Lambert all go.